Opinion: The Best and Worst DVD Commentary You've Listened To? (1 Viewer)

[Brian_Johnson]

Carrot Top's commentary for Rules of Attraction was pretty funny.
I listen to very few commentaries (mostly time reasons), but I had to listen to this one, and I wasn't disappointed.

Also, the South Park Season One CDs were pretty good.

The new Beyond the Mat commentary with the director, Foley and Ventura was good also.

 

[TommyT]

Yeah, I'm with the crowd supporting this one too! My favorite moments are when John Milius waits until there's a large amount of flying blood & says something like "Oh, that's not really that violent!" to which Ah-nuld responds by agreeing with him! It was also in one of those scenes where I discovered one of the film's greatest goofs: You can see one of the palace guards is throwing blood on himself.

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

Well my favorites are Fight Club and Mallrats. Tho a notable mention goes to Armageddon CC for Affleck's commentary.

There are a few band commentaries I find funny, like the ones on the recent Weezer DVD, and the Beastie Boys Anthology. Mostly because these guy have nothing to say, so they just poke fun at each other.

The WORST, is Resident Evil. Only because it made me lose ALL respect for Milla Jovovich. She's such a ditz. There are several others, but you tend to forget the borings ones. Although the other posters are right with their choices.

I do want to defend one commentary, which is the Sum of All Fears commentary. Say what you will, but I found it quite entertaining, as Clancy would point out everything that was wrong or inaccurate about the film with a loud, "Bullshit!". The icing on the cake is that the director is present during the commentary, taking all his criticisms.

 

[Jason Boucher]

I can't remember the name of the movie. I think it was something like "Walking to Graceland." Definitely not the 3000 Miles to Graceland Costner thing. It was about a guy who lost his wife in a car accident and picked up a hitchhiker claiming to be Elvis (I think played by Harvey Keitel). In any event, the commentary was great. The director really had an enthusiasm for his film and doing the commentary. He gave lots of good tidbits of info. on his technique, and it was really enjoyable. The movie is pretty good too. Can anyone supply the title?

 

[ChrisBEA]

I haven't read the rest of this thread but I have enjoyed the Evil Dead commentaries, plus the Rob Zombie commentary on House of 1000 Corpses was excellent (I like the movie too!)

 

[smantha_b]

I agree with you guys who said "anything with Bruce Campbell". the Evil Dead commentaries are great.

I also give Harold Ramis in Bedazzled a vote for worst commentary.

 

[Matt_H]

Finding Graceland maybe ?
link

 

[Eric Paddon]

Worst: Marian Keane on the Criterion Hitchcock films. I have absolutely no use for two hours of boring symbolism being explained to me. I know this approach enthuses some people but it has nothing to do with why I watch movies.

A close second though is the ersatz "commentary" on Planet Of The Apes with just a few old interviews stitched together completely out of context. Those two are the only ones I have ever switched off out of total boredom.

Still, the worst commentary I ever heard period is George Sidney's on the old Laser Disc version of "Show Boat". Sad to say it, but he came off as senile in it (like mistaking a shot of a horse-drawn cart in the distance for a modern truck that wouldn't have belonged).

 

[John Bryant]

The best I have ever listened to are Casablanca (Ebert) and UFH (Weird Al & company).

 

[WillG]

Off topic for sure but worth mentioning since Weird Al has been mentioned. Apparently, both his parents were found dead in their home, either early today or late yesterday. Appears to be Carbon Monoxide poisoning. Pretty sad.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Peter Bogdanovich is reliably excellent in all his director commentaries, but my personal favorite is Targets. The drunken commentary on Cannibal: The Musical is a hoot from a pure entertainment aspect.

The one that made the biggest change in how I looked at the movie was Dante's Peak, which really turned general disdain into sincere admiration for what they were doing and how they accomplished it.

The worst is the actor commentary on American Pie 3. Just godawful.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Worse than the actor commentary on American Pie 2 - the one with Mena Suvari? That's tough to believe...

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

I dunno about worst but one of the best is the commentary on C.H.U.D. - they just have a great time ripping the film and riffing on each other. It's hilarious.

 

[Tim-H.]

I second the excellent Friedkin commentary on Exorcist 25th Anniv--and second the lousy one on Exorcist TVYNS. (Guess which one I own.) I also enjoyed his To Live and Die in LA and French Connection commentaries. He's a great 'raconteur' even when you suspect he may be full of it.

I also feel a special category should be created for the track by the late Mercedes McCambridge on Exorcist 25th Anniv. I turned that on, tittered a bit, thinking "Oh, come on," and then jumped under the covers...

 

[R. Kay]

Remake of Thomas Crown Affair with McTiernan was horrible.

Entertaining movie, though.

 

[Tim Ke]

I've listened to James Cameron's commentaries on Solaris and T2 and was thoroughly impressed with the way he imparts information. Looking forward to Aliens next...

I'm sure I've heard a few stinkers - most disappointing would have to be Memento. As much as I wanted to like it, it was just waaaay too dry.

 

[Alfonso_M]

Very glad to see this thread; my backlog of “Commentaries” is so large that is not funny, Thanks to all for pointing out some of the duds for me.
Really enjoyed this few so far,

The Godfather (as entertaining as the Movie)
Dark City (learned many things missed)
Ronin (great scene set up tech details)
Once upon a time in the West (very interesting details and much more)
Bound (Pantoliano Studied Bogart!)
Straw Dogs (Great in-depth analysis)
Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Full of ‘Movie making’ trivia)

 

[Tarkin The Ewok]

Here are some I haven't seen yet in this thread:

Best:

Beauty & The Beast

Worst:

K*Pax There are long stretches of silence, and most of it was uninformative and boring. If I wasn't curious as to what the director would say about the ending, I would have shut it off.

Some that have already been mentioned that I enjoy are the Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan commentaries and the Finding Nemo commentary.

 

[Glenn R]

Worst: Director Antoine Fuqua on one of my all time favorite guilty pleasures: Replacement Killers SE. I already had the first release, and went for the SE explicitly for the commentary. Fuqua spends half the time discussing Chow Yun Fat's career, and the other half lamenting how the studio dropped the ball marketing the film. No insights on the film itself. Stick with the first release (it's cheaper) -- the SE extras are pathetic as well.

(So as to not be totally negative, I seem to recall that Fuqua did a better job on his commentary for Tears of the Sun.)

 

[Herschel]

Ok, I've always loved these threads, since I love commentary tracks. So, a few months ago, I started working on a web site to hold people's votes and reviews of what commentaries are the best and the worst. I think that it's reached the point where it's time to open it up to other commentary fans and let you guys let me know what it needs, what doesn't work, etc. And to vote for your favorites and least favorites! Right now only my girlfriend and I have voted on anything, so it's pretty biased...

The site is now up at www.ratethatcommentary.com
and is ready for some votes and feedback. This is the first time I've told anyone about it, so it desperately needs some other users...

And my 2 cents on favorites and least favorites:

Best: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Men In Black, Scream, Cannibal the Musical...

Worst: Star Wars (the original, from the Laserdisc commentary), The Player. The Player was one of my inspirations for the web site, since it's such a good film that I had really high hopes for the commentary. But it really didn't deliver.